


work/afterlife balance

by freudiancascade



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Gen, M/M, accidental drugging (no harm done), fluff with minimal plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28144974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freudiancascade/pseuds/freudiancascade
Summary: Hypnos helps with a problem.It is decidedlynotthe problem he’s been asked to help with.
Relationships: Hypnos & Thanatos (Hades Video Game), Hypnos & Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 145
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	work/afterlife balance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SeaOfBones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaOfBones/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, SeaofBones, and thank you for this absolute gift of a prompt!

“Say, Hypnos, have you got a moment?”

“I’m so horribly busy, look at how productive I’m being, overseeing my many duties without a single lapse in--and okay, that’d do it, your father’s out of earshot.” The deity folded his arms and beamed. “I’ve always got time for you, Zagreus! What’s on your mind?”

“It’s just--” Zagreus began, and found himself at a somewhat awkward loss for words. “Thanatos is your twin brother and that means you must know him better than anybody, wouldn’t you say?”

“Sure is, but it’s not like he listens to me about anything!” Hypnos replied, bouncing on the heels of his feet. “Oh, I see--is this about that fight you two had?”

Zagreus felt himself flush. It was an unfortunate quirk of his situation, the redness of his blood and its unfortunate tendency to rise to the tops of his cheeks at the slightest provocation. He rubbed the back of his neck. “You heard about that?”

“Oh, the whole House heard that one! He sure has been on edge lately, hasn’t he? And let me guess, you want little old me to help you find a way to smooth things over between the two of you?”

“I think Than’s avoiding me,” Zagreus said. “Not that it’s especially easy to tell, given how he...is.”

“I know, it’s a real problem--he just doesn’t slow down. Hmm, let’s see!” Hypnos spun on the spot, his cape flaring, making something of a production out of it. 

Zag waited.

Finally, Hypnos flashed him a conspiratorial grin. “I think I’ve got it! Well, you know how we’ve always got these poppies around? The humans make medicine from the seeds that makes them sleepy, but the petals are poison, so the humans tend to link them to the two of us all the time!” Hypnos rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Than’s sick of the things, but I bet he doesn’t know they come in other colors. And I, being such an attentive sentry--”

Zagreus pointedly didn’t say anything.

“--happened to overhear your mother mentioning that she had black ones growing in her garden up top!”

That caught his attention. “You think Thanatos would like…. _flowers_? More than ambrosia?”

Hypnos flourished a hand. “I think once he sees it, he’ll _have_ to stay put long enough to talk it out!”

“Good enough for me, I suppose,” Zagreus said, and nodded. “Thanks, Hypnos.”

And then he was off, with every ounce of his usual haste. 

* * *

Zagreus did not know much about the seasons on the surface. He’d asked Persephone about them once, but the keen ache that arose in her eyes pierced through him with much more accuracy than any number of witch’s bolts, and he let the matter drop.

And so he did not know what to call this time of year in which snow still lingered in patches. His footsteps left oddly-satisfying smouldering indents in the fallen ice, but between them there was verdant green life arising from the soil. 

The flower the underworld prince was searching for was growing outside the wall of his mother’s cottage. He plucked it from the earth gently and tucked it inside his tunic for safekeeping, turning his gaze towards the rising sun and waiting for the river to carry him home.

* * *

The next time he saw Thanatos in the House, Zagreus approached carefully. He raised both hands in a universal sign of surrender, displaying empty palms. Than looked exhausted, the usual dark circles around his eyes even deeper than normal. 

Zagreus frowned. “I've brought an apology gift?”

And then he offered the flower forward.

Than picked the poppy up carefully, the delicate stem pinched between thumb and forefinger, and lifted it upwards to examine. 

Something wasn’t right--that much became immediately clear. His complexion greyed further, and he swayed on his feet. “Zagreus?!”

And then he crumpled forward.

“Blood and darkness!” Zagreus swore, lunging forward to catch the other man. “Than?”

Than gripped at his tunic, glowering. “We need to sit down."

Zagreus nodded, too thrown to object to the usage of the word 'we,' and navigated them both to his chambers, lowering himself onto the chaise in the corner (thank Olympus he'd finally gotten around to requisitioning it from the House Contractor). Than pulled his feet up onto the soft cushions and cast a dour look upwards. 

Zagreus gently lifted the poppy from his hand. “I’ll, uh. Take this away, then?”

He received a yawn in lieu of an answer, the embodiment of death pressing in closer against him.

There--Zagreus gently brushed the hair from Than’s forehead. “Than? Are you alright? Or, rather, are you going to be alright?”

“I am,” came the sleepy reply, “But you’d better not think you can get away. We’ll have _words_ about this later.”

Zagreus took a pointed look down at himself, his lower limbs pinned in place by the weight of Than’s body. "Right. Uh. In that case, I will be right here and fully prepared to face your wrath when you awake."

* * *

Hypnos poked his head in about twenty minutes after the snoring started.

“You knew this was going to happen!” Zagreus hissed.

Hypnos waved a dismissive hand. “Relax, relax. He’s having very nice dreams.”

Zagreus stole a quick glance downwards. Much as he hated it, he had to admit that Thanatos’s face was the most relaxed he’d ever seen it, smooth and unworried in slumber. It struck him suddenly, how _stressed_ Than must be. To Zagreus, he was always...well, just Than. But to the rest of the world he was Thanatos, and as much as his work suited him, that still had to be heavy. Constant work, with no end in sight. 

Zag cleared his throat. “It will, uh. Wear off eventually? As much as I’m sure the mortal world is appreciating the respite, I imagine it would cause no small number of problems.”

Hypnos pursed his lips. “Of course it will! Sleep is the one thing I know how to do really well. He’ll wake up actually rested for a change, and maybe next time he’ll actually take a nap before I have to resort to getting somebody else to--”

“Mate! You used me!”

“Oh please! I never lied to you! Here he is, staying put! And getting some much-needed rest in the process!”

“Hypnos, I--”

“Shh! You wouldn’t want to wake him, would you? Look at him, sleeping like a baby! I suggest you get some rest, too, then. Both of you are on your feet entirely too much, you know?”

Zagreus attempted to glare daggers, though he suspected the impact was somewhat lessened by the weight of the snoring deity in his lap. 

“I’m just saying, the time he spends with you is the closest he ever gets to taking a break!" Hypnos shook his head. “Which is saying something, because you don’t ever rest, either! The two of you deserve each other, honestly.”

Zagreus opened his mouth, thought better of it, and then closed it again before speaking more carefully, “And the fact that now I’ve, apparently, got to take a break as well?”

“Total coincidence!” Hypnos spread his hands and beamed.

* * *

Zagreus was sleeping when Thanatos awoke. It was odd--for a moment upon awakening, Than didn’t especially want to get up. Zagreus was warm, in a way that few things among the dead ever were, and the soft pull of his breathing felt anchoring. For all the times the prince had died, the heart inside his chest still beat a calm, steady rhythm. It was soothing.

Still. There was business to attend to, with some matters more urgent than others. He disentangled himself carefully and proceeded down the hall towards the lobby, ignoring how the line of dead parted like water around him as he stalked towards his twin brother.

“I know that damned poppy wasn’t Zagreus’s idea!” Thanatos was not generally one for yelling, but that only meant that his anger was possibly worse for it. He simmered, low and quiet, nearly humming. “I’ve lost so much time, and I was behind on my work to start with.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Hypnos replied, barely looking up from his list.

“Of course you know what I’m talking about! Making me sleep--what were you thinking?!”

“That you needed it,” was the quick reply.

Thanatos pulled a face. “And who, exactly, put you in charge of what I need?”

Hypnos finally snapped, looking up from his paper. “For all that you’re always going on about family this and duty that, you seem to have a hard time getting through your head that you’re part of _this_ one!” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Than glared, his grip tightening on his scythe. 

“It means we're all getting worried about you, you numbskull!”

Thanatos breathed out hard. “Oh, for the love of all the--”

“No, actually, that’s not right!” Hypnos exclaimed, pointing a finger at his brother. “Numbskulls may be determined vicious little creatures but at least they accept help before the people who love them have to help them the hard way!”

“My work is _important_ ,” Thanatos hissed, taking a step backwards, “though it’s not like you’d understand that.”

“You don’t have to be so serious all the time! The work still gets done, so why not live a little?”

"That's the literal exact opposite of what I--" Thanatos began. His mouth twitched.

Hypnos grinned, then sobered. "Besides, it's now at the point where Zagreus isn't just coming to me for my ever-so-brilliant advice for combat, he's coming to me to ask about how to talk to you. So maybe if you took a little more time to talk to people yourself instead of only popping up when it's a matter of life and death, we'd all be better off for it?"

Thanatos dragged a hand back through his hair. "Hypnos, that's. Well. If the advice you've been giving him in all matters is on par with your recommendations here, I'm starting to see why he's having such trouble reaching the surface unscathed."

"Give it a think, will you?" Hypnos said, deliberately ignoring that last sentence. He looked his brother up and down one last time, and then pointedly returned his gaze back to the list in his hand.

* * *

“Than, wait!” Zagreus called, bolting down the hallway to close the distance between them.

On the verge of vanishing into smoke, Than paused. “Yes?”

“Look, mate, I didn’t mean to cause a fight between you and your brother. Lately, that seems to be all I’ve been doing, making things worse. Still, never meant to.”

“No, I--I do believe I know that,” Than admitted, folding his arms. “Perhaps...he has a point. While you’ve been so busy chasing down your own family, I may have been neglecting mine.”

Zagreus frowned. “Doesn’t change that I’m sorry for, well, accidentally poisoning you.”

“The funniest part of this is, that was the best sleep I’ve had in quite some time,” Thanatos said. “My brother does know what he's doing, on that front at least. Though I wouldn’t necessarily blame that on the flower quite so much as the company.”

“Then maybe we’ll have to do it more often.” Zagreus lifted an eyebrow. “Does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore?”

Than’s eyes gleamed. “I may be able to find some time. And perhaps I might’ve been a tad overworked, and just a little cranky.”

* * *

The next time he returned to the House, Hypnos met Zagreus with a grin. “Have you tried _not_ standing right in the middle of the swinging axe blade’s path? Might help with the whole not-getting-killed-by-a-swinging-axe-blade thing.”

“Noted,” Zag responded easily, and frowned. “You and Thanatos work your issues out, then?”

“He’s been through a few times. Said he’d even join me for a meal in the lounge,” Hypnos said, his hands digging down in the pockets of his cloak as he tried (and failed) to contain a smile much more genuine than his usual smirk. “Hey, maybe you’d like to take a break from getting yourself repeatedly killed in horrible ways and come join us?”

“I’ll think about it,” Zagreus said, and flashed a smile of his own.

And then he was off again. Hypnos leaned back against the wall, turning his focus once more towards the endless line of the restless dead.

The work truly never ended, but that didn’t mean that life couldn’t occur in the spaces between it. If he could help the people he cared about remember that every now and then, well, perhaps that was a job very well done indeed.


End file.
